What you can learn from a few professionals while working along side them can be beneficial no matter how inept one may feel to the task at hand. The opportunity presented itself so I jumped at it and was very surprised that what you see from the outside of a finished home is often meticulously planned out to the last detail long before your Sunday drive by.

I was able to look the part of a season construction vet but when the rubber hit the road and the air gun nailer was in full production mode I was more of a observer than an actual participator. Bill and the boys were fully engaged at the task at hand and the one day of my participation went by quickly. No need for a sleeping pill that night as my head hit the pillow and I was out like a light.

The thermally modified wood siding was surprisingly easier to work with then what I thought it might be. I was expecting to be handling a heavy pc. of wood but in actual fact is what quite light due to the fact that when you thermally modify wood it remove’s most if not all the moisture which in turn makes it lighter. The color was like a chocolate brown and the wood species had a very open grain. I was informed later that it was thermally modified ash and that it was harvested from local forests in Ontario, Canada ad better yet apparently its FSC certified to use in green building projects.

The builder indicated the wood was very stable and durable due in large part that there is apparently no living elements remaining in the wood after thermal modification has occurred so the wood is basically inert or what they call dead so there is very little expansion or contraction to the wood. I also noticed the wood was somewhat brittle and they explained that the wood becomes brittle simply because there is very little moisture left in the wood after thermal modification has occurred.

I will be providing a completion article as the project comes to a finish and hope you enjoy your summer of 2016. Happy hammering everyone!